In search of the perfect sound: clear, crisp, crystal, handcrafted gongs

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The birth of horological complications was the fulfillment of a need. As lovers of hands know, the famous and highly sophisticated minute repeater reproduces the exact hours and minutes acoustically on request. What was its purpose? To be able to read the time even at night, in a historical era in the 17th century when electricity was not yet part of everyday life. The first minute repeater models were introduced around 1680, and as watchmaking progressed, important improvements and dedicated innovations were added. A particular contribution in this area was made by the great watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, who in 1783 invented the gong to replace the gong: wound around the movement and struck by hammers, it was able to reproduce a clearer gong sound, save a lot of space and had the effect of significantly reducing the thickness of pocket watches.

Breguet Classique Minute Repeater 7637

Today, the minute repeater no longer merely fulfills this role, but represents the pinnacle of sophisticated fine watchmaking that not everyone can reach. In fact, to achieve this goal, great technical knowledge and a lot of available time are essential (on average, one month per watch). Therefore, to create a minute repeater watch, it is not enough to rely on watchmakers dedicated to large complications, but also requires the cooperation of acoustic experts, because one of the most important challenges is to find the best sound.

The Classique Répétition Minutes 7637 features a 42 mm diameter rose gold case with a black Grand Feu enamel dial. The hands are gold. The mechanical movement is manually wound and entirely handcrafted with mirror-polished steel hammers, and operates the minute repeater complication.

All this is part of Breguet’s tradition, and its Classique Répétition Minutes 7637 watch, like all such complex watches from the Swiss brand, is handmade. This watch has a rose gold case with a diameter of 42 mm, and the black enamel dial is made using the delicate Grand Feu technique, which requires many steps to achieve the desired tone. The hands are made of gold, and to activate the minute repeater, you need to slide the device located on the left side of the case. Everything is driven by a manual-winding mechanical manufacture movement that offers a 40-hour power reserve, is completely hand-decorated (visible through the transparent caseback), has a mirror-polished steel hammer and a balance wheel with a frequency of 2.5 Hz.

The same golden mainspring as the case (a solution that improves its performance), is here fixed directly to the case middle instead of to the mainplate: this way the sound becomes even clearer. It is also a pleasant sound, not only at night.